Madeleine Schwartz had what sounds like a complicated but fascinating childhood. She lived with her mother in New York for half the year, and with her father in France for the other six months. Then as an adult in 2020 … Continue reading →
Do you have questions about your organization’s legal requirements to guarantee language access for patients and clients with limited English? Then check out this issue brief from the National Health Law Program on Title VI of the Civil Rights Act … Continue reading →
On one hand, you’ve got the dominant languages of the world, which include English with 1.4 billion speakers, Mandarin with 1.3 billion speakers and Hindi with 602 million speakers. And then there is Romeyka. Romeyka is an endangered form of … Continue reading →
Here’s another wrinkle in the attempt to communicate effectively with LEP patients: is your patient portal truly accessible? With growing use and dependence on web-based portals, are all patients getting an even shake? According to Intersect: A Newsletter about Interpreting, … Continue reading →
When Sam Corbin, the crosswords editor for the New York Times, took on the project of learning ASL, she couldn’t resist the temptation to do what she routinely did with spoken and written English: play around with words. Being something … Continue reading →
For an close look at the causes and effects of language diversity in an urban area, check out this new book, Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York, by Ross Perlin Perlin observes that up … Continue reading →
What’s the health impact when kids from minority or indigenous-language-speaking families get care that is not in their native tongue? According to Harvard Medical School researcher Ann Miller (right), there’s an 11 percent difference between them and native speakers in … Continue reading →
Peter Wang served in a familiar role for his Florida family. His parents, who had been smuggled into the United States from Fujian, a province in southern China, in the late 1990s, arrived without knowing English. They worked in restaurant … Continue reading →
Is it true that Korean is the most scientific writing system, as described by Asian scholar Edwin Reischauer? Get a feel for the various writing systems of the world in the YouTube video above. The Roman alphabet gets stacked alongside … Continue reading →
Translating health education materials is a step in the right direction. But if the material is difficult to understand in English, translation won’t make it better. Get insight on improving the usefulness of your communication at the virtual Health Literacy … Continue reading →
Navigating the medical, governmental and business structures of the US is a routine challenge for college-educated native English speakers. Now imagine attempting the same as a recent immigrant. And now take it a step further: you’re a child in an … Continue reading →
If you’re interested in the life span of languages, here’s an intriguing story in the New York Times, New Mexico Is Losing a Form of Spanish Spoken Nowhere Else on Earth. The piece describes the arrival of Spanish-speaking migrants who … Continue reading →
Usually we’re concerned with the vicissitudes of communicating across language barriers. But here’s another way to think about how you’re interacting with patients. Recently the New York Times explored a few of the unspoken pitfalls by which patients get a … Continue reading →
How long do languages last? Already it’s not uncommon to hear children of immigrants admit they don’t speak their grandparents’ native tongue that well. What about their children and grandchildren? What does it take to save a language? Here’s a story … Continue reading →
Wondered whether your health messages to refugees, migrants and immigrants are actually hitting the mark? Here’s a webinar sponsored by the National Resource Center for Refugees, Immigrants and Migrants where panelists will explain “cultural validation” — the practice of including … Continue reading →
As noted here before, this is a world in which languages are disappearing at a frantic rate. Linguists predict that 90 percent of languages will become obsolete over the next century. Zoe Yu explores this topic in a New York … Continue reading →
Just about everybody knows there’s a disparity in health outcomes between LEP patients and native English speakers. From Harvard researchers, here’s a partial explantation. In a recently published study in JAMA Pediatrics, the study team established that LEP patients are … Continue reading →
Here’s a new podcast that opens a window into Hmong culture in America. Hmonglish is hosted by Yia Vang — a James Beard-nominated chef — and Gia Vang, a former anchor at KARE-11. Interviewed recently by MPR Morning Edition host Cathy … Continue reading →
In a health care environment it’s not the same as offering in-person interpretation, but recent additions to the languages offered by Google Translate help make the world a smaller place. In ‘Allinllachu.’ Google Translate Adds Quechua to Its Platform, the … Continue reading →
Here’s a development in the DeafBlind world that New Yorker reporter Andrew Leland describes as a new language. In DeafBlind Communities May be Creating a New Language of Touch, Leland writes about ProTactile, a mode of communication that moves beyond … Continue reading →
There’s a world of personal pronouns beyond he/she/they. To name just a few: ze/zir/zirs ze/hir/hirs xe/xem/xyrs ey/em/eirs Here’s some help from LGBTQNation on navigating the sometimes tricky business of addressing patients and clients in the way they prefer. See Everything … Continue reading →
Generally people think of interpretation and translation as a way to solve problems. Here’s a story from St. Paul that proves just the opposite can be true as well. In Dialect dispute has St. Paul Hmong group calling for Dai … Continue reading →
Having others understand the language you speak is one thing, but having your language survive in the face of globalization is another. That’s the subject that James Griffith takes on in his book, Speak Not: Empire, Identity and the Politics … Continue reading →
Here’s a story from the New York Times that’s equal parts romance and practicality. In A Love Language Spoken with Hands, a gay deaf man recounts his relationships with would-be paramours who promise that for him, they will learn sign … Continue reading →
Here’s another find via the excellent online immigrant/refugee news source, Sahan Journal. In this piece — After having a daughter, Reona Htoo couldn’t find children’s books in the Karen language. So she wrote one herself— St. Paul resident Htoo translates … Continue reading →
Here’s a fascinating piece from the New York Times, Burning, Crushing, Stabbing: How Words Affect Pain — the language you use could make a difference on the pain you feel. Reporter Cameron Walker runs through a list of surprising observations … Continue reading →
Not all translation depends on words, as is made clear by a New York Times obit for graphic designer and artist Rajie Cook. In 1974, Cook’s design firm was hired by the US Department of Transportation as it prepared for … Continue reading →